Flipkart Big Billion Sale is here again!

Flipkart is said to offer discounts and offers on more than 70 product categories including electronics, apparel, toys and furniture in the sale to be held from 13th October to 17th October.

India’s leading e-retailer Flipkart announced a ‘big billion sale’ offer a bigger version of last year’s Big Billion Day sale. This time the offer is open for five days and is limited to its smart phone app users only. The previous version of the big sale was a disappointment to its customers and buyers were enraged for ‘cheating’ on discounts and the portal was not functioning properly. But this year flipkart has everything preplanned for the big day. The offer is open only to the mobile app users, which would direct buyers to install the application first.

Flipkart is said to offer discounts and offers on more than 70 product categories including electronics, apparel, toys and furniture in the sale to be held from 13th October to 17th October.

“With over 75% of traffic coming via mobile, we expect this App only sale to be the biggest shopping event of the year,” said Mukesh Bansal, Head of Flipkart’s commerce platform. “Bigger and better as compared to last year, we have worked towards ensuring a seamless shopping experience for our customers. We have also ramped up out technology and supply chain support to ensure all our 50 million customers have the best ever mobile shopping experience. In fact, to cater to the massive customer demand; we have opened new fulfillment centres across the country to guarantee efficient delivery” he added.

Fashion portal Myntra in which Flipkart bought majority stake for an estimated Rs 2000 crore in May 2014, will also be a part of the special sale with a selection from iconic brands at special offers. Crores of rupees were spent for marketing last year’s one-day Big Billion Day sale, touting deep discounts on all kinds of products. It took just hours for the company to hit its target of $100 million in gross merchandise value, or the value of goods sold on the site on the day of the sale.

However, the sale was marred by glitches, forcing Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal to apologize to customers for pushing up prices of some products, cancelling orders and inadequate product stock.

E-commerce firms generate more than half their annual sales in the October-December quarter, when Indians splurge on all kinds of products during Diwali and other festivals.

Flipkart’s decision to do an App-only sale will provide a litmus test of the company’s thesis that Indians are ready to shop exclusively on Apps and abandon websites. Flipkart’s unit Myntra went App-only on15 May this year. At the time it went App-only, the online fashion retailer justified its move saying it was then generating more than 90% of its traffic and 70% of its orders from its mobile App.

However, some shoppers on social media as well as several analysts and investors have heavily criticized the move, expressing puzzlement as to why a retailer would limit access to a single medium. Though the company doesn’t disclose sales numbers, moving to an app-only format has hit Myntra’s sales, people familiar with the matter have said.